It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth: This Book Is for Someone, Somewhere.

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Some might be quick to dismiss some of the book as naval-gazing or too much pop philosophy, I think that those aspects are some of what makes it work best. Thorogood’s courageous honesty is supported by her hilarious deadpan humor and then tied all together by her absolutely insane artistic vision. It’s an intricately meta book with frequent commentary on its own creation being a running theme throughout.

To say I am far more interested in Zoe Thorogood’s work when it’s her own pure and unfiltered artistic vision rather than when she’s illustrating someone else’s stories would be a somewhat entitled statement. I ako zanemarimo nekolicinu mladalačkih ('self-indulgent') krindž momenata, bilo je emocionalno uživanje probijati se kroz ovu knjigu kao kroz neku džunglu, gde ne znam šta se sledeće krije u dubini. And it's this reluctance ever to let things sink into pure misery which saves the book from ending up as gruelling a read as many of its genre bedfellows.It felt like looking into a mirror with each page I read and I got really caught up (so much so that I burned my dinner) and honestly I didn't expect to be so influenced by Zoe's story.

I was touched by this a lot, remembering how I used to leave paintings with favorite poems written on them on trees around my town. In my life I'm in a pretty good place, and so reading this I can appreciate her honesty while also not feeling myself going back to that part in my life.the amount of wonderful quotes in this book is actually insane but overall to me it just felt so so depressing and i didn't wanna be there. To use the form, its tools, its possibilities and its potential in so many disparate ways to reflect mood, mindset and reactions to environment is the mark of an artist with the keenest understanding of the canvas of the comics page. Work like this is valuable, it’s important, it’s absolutely essential… it’s an undeniable acknowledgement that discussions around mental health need to be far more prevalent, far more transparent, and far more accepted. Thorogood makes use of a number of avatars representing different periods of her life or different aspects of her personality, with her depression anthropomorphised as a constantly lurking, self-satisfied ghoul.

I don't know if she'll ever read this or not, but for anyone struggling with the feeling of wanting to stay alive, please reach out to someone, even a stranger. At the same time, I do believe creative expression is really helpful, so maybe people will read this and channel their own negative emotions into art. Mostly just as an ‘I was here’ but also to hopefully have someone pause, read, and be touched by poetry even for only a moment. That Thorogood portrays all this in a graphic vernacular that we not so much read as absorb only makes it all the more powerful.You can always find the big, heavy quotations that attempt to maximize the beauty into a universal struggle for goodness and connectivity that improves us all, like Leo Tolstoy saying art ‘ is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity,’ but whew, if this is at a party it’ll kill the vibes pretty quickly. Replete with visual metaphor It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth employs photo inserts, bursts of colour to emphasise mood changes, collage, some incredibly clever lettering choices to supplement theme and tone, and occasional step-backs into plot and art breakdowns. It's an unfiltered expression of emotion and while I respect the author's choice to publish it I don't think it's polished enough for general consumption. At one point, Thorogood is shocked to discover how many people find her work relatable, but reminds herself, “You’re sad and mildly insufferable. So let’s reframe that slightly and say I wish we lived in a world where Zoe Thorogood could concentrate entirely on her own personal projects like the autobiographical It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth, published this week by Image Comics.